Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN WILLIAM BROUGH 11/363. Born in July 1898, John was the eldest of four children to James and Emma Brough of 58, Nicholson Street, Beverley Road, Hull. A Slater by trade, he queued to enlist outside City Hall on Tuesday 8th September 1914 joining the newly created 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. Those of you who can add up will have noticed that despite his claiming to be 19, John was in fact only just 16 when he attested. As far as I can tell his true age was never discovered and he was present in Egypt, on the Somme and at the debacle in front of Oppy Wood before young men now have even left school. John was killed in action a little after 5pm on 28th June 1917 when his support trench came under sudden and horrific enemy shellfire. He was either blown to smithereens or buried alive, either way no-one ever discovered his body and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; a young lad, not even 19.
